Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 16:13:30 -0600
From: Shana Walton
Subject: cheap folks
Did any other people grow up hearing the pronunciation
/chIn'-chi/ for the word "chintzy," meaning 'stingy', rather than
/chIn(t)-si/?
I'm not sure how to represent this without IPA, and I apologize for the
eye-dialect. I say it with the obvious assimlatory process of two
affricates and I swear I've heard other people say it that way.
Although I have now (since this event happened) gotten corrected for my
pronunciation!
I know that "chintzy" is in Webster's, but I was curious
about how widespread the usage is. This was a very common word when
I was growing up in the northern part of rural Louisiana, but
others in my age cohort (mid thirties) don't seem to use it.
Speaking of not using things, in the last few months I've been stopped
several times mid-sentence by people saying things like "What did you
say? I've never heard that expression before" Or "Gee, the last time
I heard that my grandmother said it." I feel like a fossil. These
expressions that have given people double-takes (native
Southerners all) include
"tight as Dick's hatband"
"poor as Job's turkey" (which was always weird to me because
turkeys are New World animals)
"handy as a pocket on a shirt"
"sword of Damocles" (and don't anybody try and tell me *this* is
a quaint regionalism)
Are all these sayings archaic now?
Shana Walton